Thoughts On Jokinen

Now that the Jokinen trade is official, I thought I would provide my thoughts on the trade. And it’s pretty simple: Win for Glen Sather. Glen Sather may suck in free agency, but the man knows what he’s doing in trades. Jokinen for Higgins and Kotalik would be simply unheard of a couple months ago.

I’ve maintained that Jokinen is essentially being swapped for Higgins. Kotalik doesn’t play. Jokinen is a HUGE upgrade over Higgins. I like Higgins. He’s a hard worker. Good penalty killer. Can’t hit the side of a barn, though. Jokinen is a scorer. He scored 29 goals last year. Calgary wasn’t working for him. He and Iginla didn’t mesh, and he only has 11 goals. I expect that to dramatically change. Jokinen is more of a fit with Gaborik. I think Jokinen can put up some points.

Put it this way: The Rangers made a push towards the playoffs, without sacrificing their youth. Kotalik was a bust. Higgins was a bust. They gave up nothing for one of the better players in the league. To me, that’s a winning deal.

So I just did some research on Puck Prospectus on GVT, Goals Versus Threshold, because I figured why not learn about some advanced stats in hockey since I am a little overobsessed with them in baseball and…

Jokinen ranks in at a 5.6 GVT which is exactly the same as Prospal.

As we know, he essentially replaces Higgins, who comes in at a not surprising -0.1.

So the team upgrades significantly in what is being termed a down year for Jokinen, yet a resurgent year for Prospal.

I’ve heard some say that Jokinen’s character was a problem, making that the crux of their argument against the trade (http://tinyurl.com/yfgzee3; it’s good, don’t sweat it). Kotalik was becoming a problem, too, so that doesn’t really hold water. Regardless of character concerns, his production will easily match the combined output of Kotalik and Higgins.